


Swallowed Pride

by Kariachi



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Culture, Gen, My favorite peeps are all Ossys because I said so, Osmosians are Weird, UAF Canon Adjacent, all the plumber brats know each other because it just makes fucking sense, bit of blood, the quickest enemies to friends since Care Bears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-18 14:45:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19336660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kariachi/pseuds/Kariachi
Summary: For those days when having one of your enemies show up at your front door is the least confusing thing to happen...





	Swallowed Pride

It was just one big day of surprises. Rook had gotten news that Shar might possibly have been aiming to date Scout. Ben had managed to be one of the local Mr Smoothies’ five-hundredth customer and another’s hundredth in the same day and so gotten two free smoothies. Zed got to drink the second smoothie after Ben dropped it during his ‘I got a free smoothie’ cheer. A book Gwen had preordered came a week early. And Kevin….

Well.

Darkstar showed up at Ben’s front door halfway through the process of introducing Rook to Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

He’d looked like absolute shit, moreso than normal. How he’d managed to get gaunter and greyer was a mystery, but he’d certainly accomplished it, and he wasn’t even bothering trying to hide it under his normal steel helmet. He wasn’t bothering with much, really, if the limp slope of his shoulders was anything to go by.

Ben’d opened the door and before he could react to seeing one of their foes standing on his porch the stronger teen had impassively shoved him out of the way, walking inside like he was family. Immediately the others had been on their feet, soiled up and ready for a fight, which made it all the more confusing when he simply bypassed Rook without even looking at him. Bypassed _Gwen_ without looking at her. Instead he beelined for Kevin, ignoring the flash of green light behind him, the weapon and energy aimed at his back. And Kevin just, watched this, eyes narrowed and fists clenched.

Darkstar stopped less than an arms length from him, face impassive, sighed, and lifted his chin. Kevin’s eyes blew wide with surprise, even as the others watched warily, their own eyes narrowing. He frowned, looked the other teen over, and made a low, rumbling noise in his throat. Then, without fanfare, he searched Darkstar’s face a final time, grabbed his arm, and _lunged_.

“Kevin!” In an instant his teeth were wrapped around Darkstar’s throat, a sharp snarl stopping the others from interfering. Meanwhile, Darkstar hadn’t so much as flinched, and continued to keep his head held high even as a line of blood trickled down his neck. After several seconds, Kevin snorted and slowly released both his holds, stepping back with a bloody mouth. As the others watched on, he slipped an arm over Darkstar’s shoulder and said something to him in Osmosian. Something that was answered back in Osmosian, to yet more surprise for everyone. With another rumbling noise, Kevin nodded and slipped his arm completely around his shoulders.

“Of all the days to have the translators off…” Ben said as Diamondhead, staring alongside the others as Kevin led the guy who’d fed off three of the four of them into the kitchen, Zed plodding along calmly at their heels.

“I’m not even sure I want to know.” The expression on Gwen’s face was complex to say the least. Like she wanted to be pissed, and concerned, and curious, but was too confused to do so _properly_. As such, it was no surprise that, just as she had been the first to speak, she was the first one to recover enough to follow the two, the others trailing behind her.

They were still speaking Osmosian and seemed to be getting along, well? They weren’t joking around or anything, at least as far as the others could tell, but they weren’t being antagonistic, which was something none of them had ever thought was possible with them. They’d hated each other from the word go- though the Plumbers Kids swore it was a recent change- but now they were talking seemingly amicably while Kevin emptied Ben’s fridge, setting literally everything on the counter beside Darkstar. Which wasn’t quite as surprising as you’d expect, given within the maybe four minutes it had taken for everyone to join them Darkstar had emptied a Tupperware and a half of leftovers. Again, the rest of the team were left staring.

“The fuck, Kevin?” Daimondhead asked the back of Kevin’s head.

“Is your mom capable of making anything with calories in it? I love her, she’s great, but holy fuck how do you people _live_?” Diamondhead blinked.

“That, does not answer my question. And no, I don’t think so.” Rook looked around the room and, ascertaining that Gwen wasn’t going to add anything to the conversation just yet- she looked even more conflicted than she had in the frontroom now that she was watching Darkstar hold one of Kevin’s handkerchiefs to his bloody throat and accept food freely given from him- stepped forward to hold the fridge door open for his fellow alien.

“Would you like to explain what just happened?” he asked.

“Mike is going to chill out,” Kevin replied, causing Rook to smile over having got an actual answer from him, “in exchange for me making sure he isn’t starving or stunted. Because _some_ people-” he threw a pointed look Darkstar’s way- “won’t ask for help until they hit kunas.” Okay, that word didn’t translate. Darkstar got the point though and rolled his eyes.

“Yes, yes, I’m the biggest idiot in the city, do they have any milk?”

Without another word, Kevin handed him the milk, which- to the Tennysons’ disgust- he drank straight from the bottle.

“Kunas?” Gwen finally asked, her first words in the room.

“He’s gonna be pupating along with the rest of us.”

Oh. Oh. That, explained it? They’d learned by now that Osmosians pupated, went from adolescents shaped like whatever had raised them to adults shaped like, well, dragon people. They’d had to, first when Pierce had started eating like he was dying, and then when Kevin had joined in. The both of them had put on serious weight in the time since, and supposedly Pierce would be pupating within a few months. Hell, even Helen and Manny’s appetites were picking up now that they were reaching the age the other two had started.

“He’s Osmosian?” As one Kevin and Darkstar leveled them with a Look.

“Of course I am.”

“Of course he is. Why the fuck do you think we fight so much?” The team continued staring.

“Because he’s an asshole,” Ben said, turning back to himself. “Ya know, the sort that eats people?”

“In my defense,” Darkstar said, “at least I never killed anyone.”

“Which puts him ahead of me, Charmcaster-” Darkstar flinched at the name, or maybe it was at the venom Kevin spoke it with “-Hex, _or_ Reinrassic.” Gwen looked like she wanted to argue, but decided otherwise.

“That doesn’t explain why his being an Ossy would make you two hate each other.” Darkstar rolled his eyes and she bristled.

“ _Because_ ,” Kevin said before he could make any smart remarks, apparently having food in his belly was perking him right back up, “I used to be in charge when we were kids, and then I left and came back big and strong, and poor little Sparkles couldn’t handle not owning the territory.” He reached out and patted Darkstar’s cheek, quickly having to dodge too damn many teeth for one humanoid mouth. “But now that’s all worked out, and everything is going to be good. Right?” Darkstar glowered at him, huffing around a bite of casserole before swallowing.

“Keep me fed, and I’ll deal.” Chuckling, Kevin leant over and bumped Darkstar’s shoulder with his own, an action that drew a smile from him despite himself. In fact, he bumped Kevin’s shoulder right back, and a lot of the remaining tension drained from the two of them as he did.

Then Ben opened his mouth.

“Okay but if he’s an Ossy, what the fuck is with his powers? I mean, you both absorb energy, and you’re both seriously strong, but beyond that… Not really Ossy-ish.” At which point the smile dropped from Darkstar’s face in place of a scowl. Kevin threw him a concerned glance, then shrugged at Ben.

“We throw mutants like nobody’s business- fuck _I’m_ one- plus, I think there’s Anodite in there?” This last bit was directed at Darkstar, who nodded like it physically pained him. Though with the neck wound it might have. Ben, Gwen, and Rook- but especially Gwen- gaped.

“You’re an Anodite?!” she said, staring at him as a number of pieces visibly slipped into place behind her eyes. He snarled in response.

“My mothers and fathers going back past the Hunting were Osmosian, I’m Osmosian.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Kevin said quickly, before anyone else could speak, snatching up a carton of juice and holding it in the air until Darkstar smiled again and joined the toast with the milk jug.

It was clearly just a day for revelations. Her own shoulders slumping as she shook her head, Gwen strode forward and snatched up a package of bell peppers before settling onto the counter furthest from Darkstar and tearing into them like she might find some answer at their cores. Ben settled for continuing to stare in confusion as his kitchen was picked clean. Rook, after shutting the fridge behind Kevin- who was moving on to the cabinets- was left to continue the interrogation.

“So, what does all this mean,” he asked. “He is not going to be causing trouble anymore?” Darkstar released a hissing breath.

“I stand behind the head of my pack,” he said in a tone like there was a knife to his throat and he couldn’t be more annoyed by it. Which would’ve been more worrying if he hadn’t then scoffed exaggeratedly at the look Kevin gave him in response. Something soft and proud and possessive all in one.

“And I promise security to those behind me.”

“So, what,” Ben asked, gaze darting between the two, “you’re buddies now?” Again, Darkstar rolled his eyes.

“We’re _pack_.”

“We’ve _been_ pack, you’ve only just finally chilled enough to act like it.” He blew Kevin a raspberry in a moment of petulance the others weren’t sure they didn’t hallucinate before turning back to his food. Back in her little corner, Gwen groaned.

“So, what, we’re stuck with him now?” In what was a sort’ve worrying move, Kevin turned to Darkstar and rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

“Yes, G, you are, and given I’ve been stuck with the chick who mindcontrolled and _murdered_ me, I think you can deal.” Darkstar’s brow rose in surprise and he looked between the two of them like Ben had done before. Meanwhile Gwen’s expression darkened, and Ben and Rook both took a step back, waiting to see if this would be a boom or a fizzle.

“And I thought you couldn’t do worse than Argit.” Okay, a fizzle. Enough of one that Kevin simply didn’t respond to her, instead going back to whatever conversation he’d been having before they walked in. And this time, none of the others felt up to interrupting. Still holding her bag of peppers, Gwen hopped off the counter and returned to the livingroom, face marred with a scowl. Ben and Rook followed soon after. Behind them, they could hear Zed whining at Darkstar’s feet for attention.

This was going to take some serious getting used to...


End file.
